Small children and dogs unsupervised. Rant.

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"So and so's dog is the most tame (breed) ever! I would leave him home to watch my daughter(eighteen months old!). She loves him and he loves her!"

Wait.. WHAT?

Someone's reply was "Fail parenting."

She replied then, with, "It's an example of how much I trust the dog. I know better than to leave the baby at home with the dog... They would eat everything"

Grah.

So.. of course, being pregnant and having raised both children, AND fostered dogs, I felt the need to speak up. "I have to say I wouldn't leave my child alone unsupervised with ANY dog, no matter how tame, no matter how much they love children. There is ALWAYS potential for SOMETHING to go wrong on either end, or for accidents to happen and then you have bylaw on your ass carting your dog away. I wouldn't want to risk my DOGS life, let alone risk my child that way. Just my two cents. And I have dogs who LOVE babies. Too many parents HAVE done JUST that. They're the ones in the news regularly. ;D"

So she says, "When they grow up together, I see it differently."

And my reply, "I'll agree to disagree then. I don't think animals and young children should be left unsupervised, ever, in any situation. Too many things that can happen, whether accidental or not. Too much risk in my opinion. Again, I wouldn't want to risk either my child, or my dog."

Never. A lot of it is because of the dog I have right now- she is assertive and rather dominant, but also has space issues and will not tolerate all the usual things children get up to- loud noises, sudden movements, petting inappropriately. And the children, and her, are too important to risk.

It's tough though, when people think that way. Sometimes you have to weigh the possibility of what might happen if things DON'T go the way you think they will. What do you stand to gain? And what do you stand to lose? IMO what you stand to lose in this scenario is far, far too risky.

I would never leave my children alone with dogs unsupervised. I mean, dogs would tend to see young children (those who haven't reached puberty) as their equals, as playmates. Since dogs would usually use their mouths for play, there's a huge chance that your dog might accidentally hurt your child. No matter how good a dog is with kids, a dog will always be a dog and a kid will always be a kid.

I would never leave any of my dogs alone with a young child especially Kashmir. She has never grown up with young children or been around them alot. When my cousin visited from AZ and brought her toddler, i didnt leave her out of my sight. Whenever Brooklyn tried to come near me Kashmir would try and put herself in between us. I would tell her to go to her bed and stay there and when i used the bathroom Kashmir went with me or outside. She never tried to hurt Brooklyn but i didnt like her possessive behavior

I would seriously bet all that I have on Sanka never intentionally harming a kid. Not biting, scratching, any of that stuff. I've seen this dog in just about every situation you could imagine, and he's been rock solid in temperament.

But Sanka is a clutz. Chances are, he'll knock something over and have some Rube Goldberg effect and end up hurting the kid anyway.

Never unsupervised, and JT isn't allowed near very small children even with me present. On Xmas I told my nieces they could play with my dog as much as they like but they had to come and get me first, and everyone was happy with that.

This whole dogs as babysitters thing is absolutely crazy, and kids do die.

There was also a video going around of a kid allowed to bounce up and down on a rott's ribcage with the parents ENCOURAGING it so sometimes even supervision fails too ... I guess when idiots have kids, nothing's off limits ....

I agree with you. My in laws have a very tame, easy tempered dog. At Christmas, he was cuddled up sleeping under a chair, stealing a minute away from the action. I was horrified when the adults present let an 18 month old crawl under the chair and start pulling on the dog. They all laughed because they thought it was cute. They didn't seem to see any risk of the dog and baby being in a tight space. I walked in the room and picked up the baby. It just takes a second for a dog to feel afraid or threatened.

I trust Cobain more than I trust most people, but that doesn't mean I would ever leave him alone with a child.
I figured at this point, with information (and news articles) so easily found at our fingertips, that such behaviour would come to an end.

I'm with you: never unsupervised. I don't care how trustworthy you think the dog is. I really get annoyed at seeing all these pictures online of kids yanking on dogs tails or sticking their hands in their mouth. That picture could have easily gone very badly and of course the dog would be blamed.